Edible Furniture: The Answer to Tough Economic Times?
In hard times, we all have our own methods for dealing with lack of funds or a shortage of food. Design Studio Lanzavecchia + Wai came up with some truly creative solutions to Europe’s current economic climate and austerity measures: edible furniture.
The essential parts of the furniture are made of black iron. Added on to those essential elements are edible pieces that can be eaten away until only the simplest form of the piece remains.
A kitchen table features a top of a giant piece of hard candy. When the candy is eaten, a base with three small surfaces is left. A chair made of white chocolate contains a small iron chair that can still be used as a chair when the chocolate is gone.
The edible sofa uses bricks of rice held together with starch. The seating surface is covered with a blanket filled with beans. After the beans and rice are consumed, the low iron bench is a perfectly suitable (if somewhat hard) surface for sitting.
Another kitchen table features a top made mostly of a hard cracker. The tabletop balances on stacked cans of corned beef, which can be eaten with the cracker as the table gets smaller and smaller. When all of the food has been consumed, a simple tray remains.
The exhibit was meant to demonstrate how furniture could become helpful in times of economic emergencies. As times get tougher, the decorative or unnecessary parts of the furniture become superfluous and can be used to sustain us while the essential parts of the furniture remain functional. The pieces, of course, are not meant to be used in homes as actual furniture – they are a commentary on how we may use creativity to get us through times of crisis.
